Legendary musical Renaissance man Booker T. Jones will be performing at Johnny D’s on July 9. — Photos by Piper Ferguson.

By Blake Maddux

In addition to having their own major success with the 1962 single Green Onions, one of the most recognizable instrumentals in popular music, Booker T. Jones and the band The MG’s played on numerous recordings by some of the greatest soul and blues musicians of all time. As the house band for the Memphis-based record label Stax, The MG’s (sometimes without Jones) are heard on songs by Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Carla and Rufus Thomas, Sam & Dave, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King, for whom Jones co-wrote the classic blues number Born Under a Bad Sign.

The MG’s broke up in 1971 and reunited in 1975 for a pair of less notable albums. However, Jones and other members remained busy as session musicians and producers. As the latter, Jones worked with – among others – Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers, and Willie Nelson. The band was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, toured with Neil Young in 1993, released a new album in 1994, and won a Grammy in 1995.

Booker T. Jones – the recipient of a total of four Grammy awards – has released several solo albums under his own name, including 2013’s Sound the Alarm, which marked his return to Stax four decades after leaving the label.

Jones spoke to The Somerville Times by phone from his home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in advance of his July 9 appearance at Johnny D’s.

Somerville Times: You were born in Memphis, but have lived much of your live elsewhere, right?

Booker T. Jones: Yes, born in Memphis. I lived there until about ’69 and I went to school in Bloomington, Indiana [at Indiana University] from ’62 to ’66. I lived off-and-on on the West Coast and Los Angeles for, I don’t know, probably a total of 30 years. I lived in the Bay Area for 20 years, until about three years ago, actually. Raised my kids there in Marin County. I lived there until about 2009. And then I actually spent some time in Malibu. I had a ranch there in the early 70s for a few years. I’ve lived all over the place!

ST: Was there ever any chance that you would not become a professional musician?

BTJ: Well, I started as a high-schooler being interested in medicine, [but] I didn’t do well in chemistry. I did do well in music theory and teaching myself instruments. My mother was a classical pianist and vocalist and her mother was a piano teacher. My father was musically inclined. I actually started to make some money as a musician at a very young age – 10, 11 years old. So I changed myself over to music school and I planned on becoming a music teacher. I took music education at Indiana University.

ST: What prompted you to record McLemore Avenue (1970), which was a tribute to Abbey Road by The Beatles?

BTJ: It was a hats off to The Beatles, a group that had at that point done everything in the music business as far as success goes that a band could do. They continued to strive. They could’ve stopped. They could’ve rested on the laurels, but they continued to make new interesting music. And I was just impressed by that. And I just really loved the melodies that they came up with and the topics that they wrote about. I just wanted to pay tribute to them.

I’m still fascinated with The Beatles. I still, every now and then, do some of their songs on stage.

ST: Do you think that you have improved as a musician over the decades?

BTJ: I would hope so. I’ve continued to practice all these years. I still do my scales, the ones I started as a nine-year old or a 10-year old. I think I have a better understanding of music. I continue to study. I still have my scores in my music room that I study. I’m studying a Schumann score [Cello Concerto in A Minor, 1850] right now. I hope to someday write my own concerto.

I still listen to the blues, I still listen to a lot of jazz, and I still try to surround myself with people who are better than me. And I love all kinds of music. I love house music and EDM [electronic dance music] and just lots and lots of different things.

ST: Even considering the variety of musicians with whom you have played, your appearance on the 2009 album Let the Dominoes Fall by the punk band Rancid still seems unlikely. How did that come about?

BTJ: That was one of my guys Andy Kaulkin, who was actually kind of a mentor to me during the time. He had a record label that I was recording for, and he was a fan of the band and he mentioned me to them. They were excited about it, so I swung over and hung out with them one day and we just had a lot of fun there with the Hammond [B-3 organ].

They were out in the San Fernando Valley. Fun-loving group of guys. All the guys in the band showed up for the session. It was some pretty wild Hammond parts that I played.

ST: What were some of the instruments that you learned, mostly by teaching them to yourself, when you were growing up?

BTJ: Every time I saw an instrument, I got a little bump in my heart. When I saw a clarinet, I got a jump and a thrill from it. When I heard the oboe, I was a little boy, my neighbor had one in his attic. I ended up teaching myself the instrument, and that’s how I got into the band in fourth grade. All of the clarinets were full, but I got in playing the oboe.

When I first saw the Hammond B-3, I remember the feeling. It just gave me, not a chill, but kind of a warm feeling. So I went through a lot of different instruments. In high school, I played trombone. I played my senior recital in college on trombone. Upright bass, they had one in my high school and I got some gigs on that instrument in Memphis. One of my first gigs that I got was playing bass. I have a lot of instruments in the house: 14 guitars, three Hammond organs, and I’ve got a lot of grand pianos and keyboards. I gave all my instruments to kids in New Orleans after the flood. I sent them all down there because I hadn’t been playing them. A flute, a clarinet, a tenor sax, [and] two trombones – I sent those down there.

ST: So you could have become famous for playing numerous other instruments.

BTJ: [I had] a big hit record [Green Onions] going in before I was a freshman in college, and so I became known as a keyboardist. But I was getting most of the gigs as a sax player – I got my first gig at Stax as a sax player – and a lot of gigs as a bass player.

ST: B.B. King was born in Mississippi, but made a name for himself in Memphis. Did you know him?

BTJ: I did. I got to see him just a few months before he died. I got to see him in San Antonio, Texas. It was funny, he invited me up on stage and we were reminiscing in front of the audience on stage instead of playing music. [laughs] He was OK with it. The audience was OK with it, too.

Back in Memphis we knew a lot of the same people. Most of the musicians from Mississippi would come up to Memphis as young kids and teenagers, because that’s where you got the gigs; that’s where the clubs were. He came up, too, and he was well known in Memphis.

ST: What are some of your hobbies outside of music?

BTJ: I like to try to play golf. I love chess. I love camping. I’m going on a backpacking trip this month [June]. Going up to the High Sierra.

ST: Which are you better at: golf or chess?

BTJ: Neither! [laughs]

Booker T. Jones, with DJ John Funke and The B3 Kings. Thursday, July 9 at Johnny D’s. Doors at 5:30 p.m., show at 8:00. $45-$65 in advance, $50 day of show.